Monday, May 19, 2025
Emily Weiner, a junior at John F. Kennedy High School in the Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District, recently brought a powerful message to her peers from Robert Gaafar, a survivor of the Route 91 Harvest music festival mass shooting in Las Vegas.
by hosting a speaker in the school’s auditorium to raise awareness about gun violence.
The event, to raise awareness about gun violence, featured Gaafar, a survivor of the October 2017 tragedy that left more than 60 people dead and over 400 injured. It remains the deadliest mass shooting by a gunman in U.S. history.
Weiner, 16, started a Students Demand Action chapter at Kennedy last school year. Students Demand Action, or SDA, is a network of high school and college students who organize to end gun violence in their communities, started in response to the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida in 2018. Weiner connected her work with Kennedy’s SDA chapter to the school’s leadership program, a multi-year course she’s enrolled in that shapes students into young leaders in their communities.
Juniors enrolled in the course must orchestrate a civics project, taking initiative to educate fellow students directly about subjects they’re passionate about while pushing for systemic change. Weiner’s civic project specifically educated her peers about ghost guns, firearms assembled from parts that lack serial numbers, making them untraceable by law enforcement.
Brad Seidman, Weiner’s leadership program teacher at Kennedy, said Weiner has been actively working to address gun violence in the U.S. through advocacy efforts.
“Mr. Gaafar shared his powerful firsthand account of surviving what remains the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history,” he said of the presentation she hosted in late-March. “His moving testimony helped bring awareness to the issue of gun violence and its impact on communities across the nation.”
Around 150 students from nine different classes attended the presentation.
Weiner said she thinks it is really important to educate her fellow peers on gun violence.
“There’s been so many school shootings, and it’s super important for kids to know everything about gun violence,” she said. “In my speech (before the presentation), I brought in a personal story. When I was younger, during the Parkland shooting, my camp counselor was one of the people who was injured. Luckily, she survived — but many others didn’t. I wanted to project that and show that it’s a serious issue.”
Weiner explained that Gaafar’s presentation included a first-hand testimony of the incident along with photos and videos that captured her peers’ attention. Providing important statistics — such as the fact that over 45,000 people are killed each year from suicides and shootings in the U.S. — really helped students understand the issue. Black children and teens are 18 times more likely to be victims of gun violence than white children, Weiner added.
“He shared myths and facts,” she said. “One myth is more guns make the U.S. safer — but the fact is, if more guns make us safer, America would be the safest country in the world — which shows that it’s an inaccurate statement.”
Because Weiner’s civics project is directly centered around ghost guns, Gaafar also used the presentation to encourage attending students to sign a petition that will be sent to Congress, advocating for the banning of selling ghost gun parts.
“This student-led initiative demonstrates our leadership students’ commitment to civic engagement,” Seidman said, “and addressing important social issues through peaceful advocacy and education.”
Lastly, Weiner said Gaafar shared solutions to gun violence — and how students can get involved. “Background checks, speaking up and safe storage of guns at home — and a call to action,” she said. “To just encourage people to talk to family and friends, report threats, contact representatives and get involved with organizations like Students Demand Action and March For Our Lives.”
Gaafar opened up the floor to questions, and Weiner said a lot of her peers asked him how being a survivor of a mass shooting has affected him in his every day life — which she said demonstrated that they acknowledged the extent of what he’d been through.
The SDA chapter at Kennedy will likely meet throughout the remainder of the school year, Weiner said. Looking ahead to next year, she hopes to continue her efforts with letter writing campaigns and potentially another guest speaker. Students can learn more about the SDA chapter’s efforts and upcoming meetings by visiting @SDA.JFK on Instagram.
